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The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music
The Kerrville Folk Festival kicks off this weekend for three weeks of late night campfires, folk music, and vigorous hula-hooping. Now in it’s 40th year the Kerrville Folk Festival is the longest running music festival in Texas. In all those years the format of the festival has changed very little. After the lights on the main stage fade, folk musicians and folk music fans return to their campsites and stay up for hours sharing songs and stories. Don’t believe me? Just take a look for yourself.
KUT @ Kerrville Campfires 2010 from KUT 90.5 Austin on Vimeo.
“You Light Up My Life” Writer Dies
Oscar winning songwriter Joseph Brooks apparently committed suicide at a New York apartment last weekend. Brooks penned the hit “You Light Up My Life” for which he was awarded “Best Song” in 1977. In 2009 Brooks was charged with sexually assault against number of young actresses he met on Craigslist. To add to his legal problems, Brooks’ son, Nicholas, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend at a hotel last December.
[NY Times]
Let The Cloud Wars Commence
Lawyers for the RIAA are strapping on their jet packs and girding themselves for battle as Apple nears the release of their cloud based music service. Hot on the heels of Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Player, Apple is reportedly close to finalizing licensing agreements with the four major record labels, EMI, Sony, Warner, and Universal. Much like the services provided by Google and Amazon, Apple will allow users to upload their music libraries to the cloud and then stream them from any computer or mobile device connected to the web. The biggest difference between the services is in Apple’s answer to the sticky situation of music licenses. Google and Amazon contend that individuals own the music licenses when they purchase music whereas Apple is trying to reach agreements with the major labels to secure the rights to all the music that will eventually make its way into the cloud. Tech commentators say that Apple’s approach will allow them to offer a fuller service and potentially avoid clashes with the RIAA lawyers that are already seeking access to some Google and Amazon accounts.
[Ars Technica]
Facebook Likes Music
Not content with controlling your social life, the uber efficient time-waster known as Facebook is close to launching it’s own music streaming service with the help of Swedish startup Spotify. The partnership will allow Facebook users to access Spotify’s 13 million tracks and listen to them simultaneously with their friends. It is the latest move in Facebook’s plan to offer streaming movies, TV, and music to its users. If you haven’t used Spotify yet you should. It is one of the cleanest and most well rounded music jukebox programs I have ever used. But there is a catch, a BIG one! The service wont be available to Facebook users in the U.S. wah wah wah… As expected, major record labels want to make sure they get all the royalties they have coming to them and that means BIG BIG money. The kind of money Spotify has always struggled to attain through paid subscriptions and advertisements.
[Forbes]
